Hi Folks. I am sorry if this topic has been discussed before, i searched through the form but could not find alot of info. Anyways yesterday the parking brake on my car seemed ok when i released it in order to get back home from work. On applying the brake on my driveway, the pedal went down freely without any resistance. I could still hear the clicking sound but it dosent seem to be engaging. The parking brake sign works ok, only the brake dosent work anymore. I will appreciate if anyone could provide any info on what could be the problem and how big it could be. Thanx in advance.

A couple days ago my girlfriend engaged the emergency brake after parking on my inclined driveway, and in neutral the vehicle was rolling backwords. Are you talking about the parking brake, or the emergency brake? Anyways, I checked it, and it definitely wasn't working. After that I put the emergency brake on, and throttled a little in drive, and the brake was working again. No problems since. You might want to try that, and see if it works.

Parking brake AND emergency brake...I thought these cars only had a left foot (For left hand drive) foot activated parking brake...MMM...I read that the ratchet mechanism in the kick panel can brake causing the adjuster not to be set and thus no rear shoes to grab the rear drums...

Thank you 2002c230 and BF_JC230 for the info. To be honest, i dont even know what an emergency brake is. I am talking about the left foot (For left hand drive) foot activated parking brake. The one that makes clicking sound on applying. Yup i tried a lot of times since then, it definitely is not working anymore. Before, it used to have resistance in it while applying and used to get released with a sound. Now there is no sound and resistance. So if it really is the kick panel, is that an expensive fix? Could it be just the cable? One thing i want to add here is that its extremely cold here in Toronto, could that be the cause of something to break? Thanx in advance.

Yeah it is has been cold down here in the south towns of Buffalo as well. I read a while ago about someone with the same problem. Turned out it was the ratcheting locker for the parking brake which is connected to the pedal and inside the driver kick panel. I am not sure about fixing - I think it is a replace faulty item...

If that is not it...You may want to check under the rear seat at the actual parking brake split...and adjust it - When was the last time it was adjusted? I think it is a job to do with every service, or once a year...

Seriously, though, there really isn't a such thing as an emergency brake. It is a parking brake. The only reason people called it an emergency brake is the light in the instrument cluster is usually a circle with an exclamation mark (!), which is mostly meant to signal a faulty brake system. So people automatically associated the light as "emergency".

Seriously, though, there really isn't a such thing as an emergency brake. It is a parking brake. The only reason people called it an emergency brake is the light in the instrument cluster is usually a circle with an exclamation mark (!), which is mostly meant to signal a faulty brake system. So people automatically associated the light as "emergency".

Handbrakes are considered double duty... since they are mechanical... in case you lose your brake pressure you can gently pull up on these handbrakes and stop the car, hence "emergency brake".